The presence of undesirable bacteria, for example, Botulism sp., among others, in food products intended for human consumption has recently caused increased concern among food product manufacturers. This is due to the potential that contaminated food has for serious illness or even death as a consequence of its ingestion by the consumer. While it would be desirable to monitor contamination in every sample of food, in most cases, it is simply not possible to detect the presence of contaminating bacteria by visual or mechanical inspection. Consequently, chemical means must be used to facilitate such detection.
Although food is generally inspected prior to its being packaged, it is presently not practical to inspect each package of food for contamination individually. With increasing reglarity, outbreaks of bacterial contamination place the food-consuming public at risk.